Mariappa Off To Copa America

24 May 2016

Eagles defender Adrian Mariappa has been included in Jamaica’s squad for the 2016 Copa America, which will take place in the USA next month.

It is the second successive year that Mariappa will feature in the traditionally South American tournament, as the national federation CONMEBOL is celebrating its centenary and that of the competition itself.

To mark the occasion, a special edition is being staged in the middle of the usual four year cycle, and will take place outside of South America for the first time with six teams from the North America federation CONCACAF also invited to participate.

After being invited as special guests last year, the Reggae Boyz qualified as one of the 16 teams by virtue of being holders of the Caribbean Cup, which they won in 2014. They have been drawn in a group including Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela, and warm up for those games with a friendly against current Copa holders Chile on Friday 27th May.

Mariappa, who has won 36 caps for his country, 25 of which have been during his time with Palace, will firstly take on Venezuela in Chicago on 5th June, before facing Mexico four days later in Pasadena. The group stage concludes in Santa Clara with the meeting with Uruguay on 13th June as Jamaica aim to improve on last year’s showing which saw them lose all three of their matches.

The Palace man is just one of two Premier League players included in Winfried Schaefer’s squad, with the other being Leicester City captain Wes Morgan.